Springfield 1911 fails to fire hollow points

I have a Springfield Armory Mil. Spec. 1911 that I bought about a year ago and I like it a lot, but it won't reliably feed hollow point ammunition. Ball ammo works fine. I thought it might be a magazine problem so I bought two McCormick magazines for the gun, but still have the same problem. I can't get through two magazines without a misfeed when shooting hollow points. Is this unusual for this gun?

I would contact SA and let them get it working properly. SA is known for good customer service.

James

lilidiot

March 2, 2010, 05:04 PM

There were never designed to fire hollow points in the first place in a 1911 format.

That's why JMB also invented the .45 cal Auto Colt Pistol 230, grain ball round nose ammo to use in them. The very slow moving round is not also great for bullet expansion either. You got to get up over 1,000 a second for that. Google the "Box of Truth" and take a look.

figment

March 2, 2010, 05:04 PM

I have a colt that I had to smooth the feed ramp on. I used A dremmel tool with a cratex tip. There was a good 1/4" step on the throat. Fed everything just fine after that.

Walkalong

March 2, 2010, 05:05 PM

Plenty of box stock old 1911's that feed HP's. If everything is at the right angles and in the right places, using good mags, they'll feed anything.

Springfield will fix it. :)

Nomad

March 2, 2010, 05:08 PM

I had a SA Mil Spec that shot Golden Saber and Hydo Shocks fine. Your post doesn't make it clear (at least to me) if you have tried several types of HP or just one. Most 1911 will shoot HP just fine. A few show a dislike for a certain brand. Every 1911 I own shoots every HP I've tried very well.

Gryffydd

March 2, 2010, 05:09 PM

If everything is at the right angles and in the right places, using good mags, they'll feed anything.
+1. I have a Springfield Mil-Spec that feeds hollow points all day long from Wilson 47D magazines. It didn't do quite so well from the factory mags.

bhhacker

March 2, 2010, 05:19 PM

Ive had 2 1911s and never had them feed HPs reliably. I even returned one to STI for them to work on it and it still didnt do it.

I used PowRballs and never had a problem.

Yo Mama

March 2, 2010, 07:22 PM

There were never designed to fire hollow points in the first place in a 1911 format.

That's why JMB also invented the .45 cal Auto Colt Pistol 230, grain ball round nose ammo to use in them. The very slow moving round is not also great for bullet expansion either. You got to get up over 1,000 a second for that. Google the "Box of Truth" and take a look.

Negative. No gun is "degined" to fire HP or FMJ exclusively. HP was not created yet, so the gun fired what was around.

You don't need to get to 1,000 fps, with new HPs in the last few decades your fine to around 650 give or take including the new line of Hornady critical defense loads. A GS out of a 5 inch barrel displays perfect mushrooming at 850 fps.

OP, you need to polish the feed ramp. I have 2 milspecs, and one was picky with HP at first, never another problem after smith polished it up good. The other came much more polished and never had an issue.

The Lone Haranguer

March 2, 2010, 07:55 PM

What kind of ammunition are you using? I would select a design with a rounded nose and a relatively narrow HP cavity. Some individual guns also don't "like" 230-grain JHPs because of an increased overall cartridge length. If it won't feed something like Winchester 185-grain Silvertips or Remington "green box" 185 HPs, there is something else going on that requires remedial attention.

1911Tuner

March 2, 2010, 08:05 PM

Any decent quality modern 1911-pattern pistol should eat hollowpoints like a starvin' dog jumps on a steak. When they don't, it's most often the magazine, but occasionally there are other issues.

Slide off the frame, lay the barrel into the bed and insert the slidestop through the frame and link. Push the barrel down and as far back as it will go. There should be a slight gap between the top corner of the frame ramp and the lower edge of tha barrel ramp. A 32nd inch is about right. If it's not there...if the barrel ramp is flush with the frame ramp...that's probably your bug.

If that looks good, it could be that the frame ramp angle isn't steep enough, and it's guiding the bullet nose straight into the barrel ramp instead of skidding it over the top, creating what is known as Three-Point Jam.

When it hangs up...if you can't push the slide to battery...and you have to eject the stuck round and start again...that's what it is. If you can push it to battery, it's likely either the extractor or a weak mag spring...with the magazine spring getting first nod as the culprit.

lilidiot

March 2, 2010, 08:17 PM

Did you ever consider the fact that reduced bullet weights work against the designed spring tensions for 230 grn round nosed bullet that Browning intended to be used in the 1911.

Now the 1911 was designed for round nose bullets. Common sense will tell you if hollow points were not invented yet how can they be used. The fact of the matter is there was no ammo invented yet for the 1911 and that is why Browning invented the 230 grn round nose bullet .45 caliber Colt Auto Pistol round. That is why he called it .45 ACP in the first place.

Now take some shoe polish and put them on the nose of a 230 round nose and you will see that it only bounces off the feed ramp and will leave a spot not a streak as you hand cycle a round in and out. Throating the barrel only aids on chamber entrance. It won't do a thing for hollow points. Now if you take a caliper to a hollow point it might come up shorter than a round the gun was designed for. Take a look at that.

Now all of this said, we won WWI and WWII and Korea with out hollow point .45 caliber bullets and doing quite well in the Middle East with a 9 mm ball ammunition.

1911Tuner

March 2, 2010, 08:34 PM

Did you ever consider the fact that reduced bullet weights work against the designed spring tensions for 230 grn round nosed bullet that Browning intended to be used in the 1911.

Well...Seein' as how I've been involved with the 1911...shootin''em...wrenchin' on'em...buildin' and rebuildin'em...tunin' and tweakin'em...cussin' and cryin' and prayin' over'em for goin' on half a century...I'm aware of a good many things concerning the platform.

I'm also aware of a dozen or so unaltered USGI pistols in my possession from both WW1 and WW2 contracts that can't tell the difference between hardball and hollowpoints and 800 fps 200-grain SWC ammunition...without a spring change. They feed and function with all the above with equal enthusiasm...and they'll do it from the original "Hardball" magazines.

Now all of this said, we won WWI and WWII and Korea with out hollow point .45 caliber bullets

We won WW2 with rifles and machineguns and aerial bombs and artillery...not with pistols. Korea was a stalemate. We aquitted ourselves well, but it wasn't with pistols.

Pistols don't win wars, though they sometimes save the lives of men who do.

Steve C

March 2, 2010, 08:38 PM

Try some Remington JHP's. If your pistol will not feed Remington its been my experience that you won't find any that will feed.

Most of the recent manufactured 1911 clones have a varying amount of chamfering of the barrel ramp to enhance feed with square nosed bullets. Something that used to be done only by a gunsmith making a gun that will shoot SWC's. A true mil spec copy of the 1911 will have little chamfer and will usually requires some help to reliably feed HP's and SWC's. Simply polishing the feed ramp, don't remove much metal, just enough to remove the tool marks and make it mirror smooth.

In the picture below the 70 series Combat Commander barrel shown on the left has a very small barrel ramp and needed feed ramp polishing to get it to reliably feed SWC's. It would feed most JHP's but had trouble with CCI both 200gr (old flying ashtrays) and current Gold Dots.

The 1991 barrel on the right had a much larger chamfered area feed ramp and feeds both JHP's and SWC's without any modification.

Three ramps pictures from different 1911s I own.
First is a Kimber
Second is a Colt
Third is a Para Ordnance

Although it is hard to see in the colt example due to the focus on the receiver, if you look close you can see how I made it like the other two.

1911Tuner

March 2, 2010, 08:58 PM

Burlyman...Figment's first picture is what your ramp area should look like. With the barrel pushed full rearward, the gap won't be quite as pronounced, but should be apparent. If that checks out, try a different magazine, or install a Wolff 11-pound spring for the standard 7-round magazine...not the +5%/8-round spring. Won't work with the OEM magazines you got with the gun.

See if you can beg, borrow, or steal an OEM Colt 7-round magazine with the tapered feed lips. I've seen that mysteriously clear up more than one feed issue.

If that's not it, it's time to have a look at the frame ramp. It should be 31 degrees. If it's 30 degrees, it'll usually still work with ball.

hillbillydelux

March 2, 2010, 09:18 PM

Yes. I have a springer that wouldnt feed hornady XTP's. Problem was I had a couple thousand XTP bullets and had to fix the gun so they would feed. The factory finish on the feed ramp had horizontal tool marks that would stop the nose of the bullet dead in its tracks. A little stainless buffing compound and a low speed dremel with a buffing pad and it came out to a nice mirror finish and hasnt had a hiccup since.

DeepSouth

March 2, 2010, 09:21 PM

I would contact SA and let them get it working properly. SA is known for good customer service.

Take this advise, your gun has a Lifetime Warranty and they will pay shipping both ways, so why not?